Combat· War of 1812
Peacock vs HMS Epervier
A quick and lopsided American victory off the Florida coast.
The sloop USS Peacock, under Master Commandant Lewis Warrington, brought the British brig HMS Epervier to action and battered her into submission in about forty-five minutes of close gunnery, the ship's Marines adding their fire to the broadsides. The Epervier was so cut up that she struck with several feet of water in her hold, while the Peacock came through almost untouched and lost not a man killed. The prize was a rich one: the Epervier carried a large sum in specie, more than a hundred thousand dollars, which passed into American hands. Warrington brought both his ship and the prize safely into Savannah. It was one of the cleanest single-ship successes of the war, won with negligible American loss against a determined but outgunned opponent.
Podcast episodes on War of 1812
Record no. 229